Masks vs. Contact Tracing

If so, then how do you explain the statistics globally? Countries with mask mandates didn't do as well as those with strong contact tracing. Getting to people quickly and getting small groups into quarantine appears to do a much better job than shutting down your economy or forcibly masking the public. Unless you're attempting to say that you don't believe the global numbers either.

I’m talking about the numbers here. As far as the global numbers go everyone seems to be comparing countries that are the size of a state here to how our numbers are as a nation. But as far as the numbers go if what they said was true at the beginning of quarantine we would be seeing a huge decline in numbers instead of an increase. As far as masks go if you tell most people they have to do something they will fight you on it and do the opposite.

That's what we're seeing. What do you think can change that and help them to comply?

So how do you see us being able to bridge the gap between that, "you can't tell me what to do," and establishing something that will help keep things open?

There, indeed, is the rub. The "you can't tell me what to do" reaction is deeply ingrained, not just in the ethos of the USA, but in human nature as well. It is, after all, the basic sin for which Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden. At a very fundamental level we humans don't like someone else telling us what to do.

What happens then, especially in a culture that celebratres individual sovereignty, is that the reaction becomes more emotuonally driven. You know as well as anybody that it is nigh on impossible to use logical persuasion to influence, even a little bit, an emotional conviction. The only way to change a deeply rooted emotional response is to use emotion. It may sound a bit cynical, but what might help more than anything right now would be a well recognized bastion of conservatism who was willing to stand up and say, "wearing masks and well monitored contact tracing are good things." I'm thinking of someone like Colin Powell or Condolesa Rice. The problem, given the current state of things, is that even those two would be shouted down and branded as part of "the conspiracy," effectively silencing them. I'm afraid that the only effective agent of change in the current hyper sensitive culture would be a provably effective vacine, distributed in such a way as to negate or minimize the fears of micro-trackers and over-the-top government snooping.

Of course, you and I know that a true heart change can only come about through the power of the cross. So keep doin' what you're doin.

So what do you think of the "need" for better contact tracing to keep the economy going and keep things open?